The Foundations of the Internal Market: Free Trade Area and Customs Union under Articles 28-31 TFEU

This contribution places the provisions of the Treaty creating a free trade area and customs union between the Member States (Articles 28-31 TFEU) in their wider context. It then focuses on the interpretation of Article 30 in the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Throughout, it casts sideways glances at corre

Always at your service (within limits): The ECJ's case law on article 56 TFEU (2006-11)

The European Court of Justice's case law between 2006 and 2011 on the freedom to provide services develops the principles of the earlier jurisprudence, but adds nuances and new beginnings to a number of questions, in particular regarding the distinction of that freedom from the other freedoms under the Treaty, wholly internal situations, proportionality and the burden of proof. While these developments are largely to be welcomed, the multiplicity of the Court's approaches to the question of when national measures amount to restrictions on the freedom to provide services remains a worry, as does the recent transfer of the "too uncertain and indirect" formula from the case law on the free movement of goods to the freedom to provide services. © 2011 Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited and Contributors

The inexhaustible question - Free movement of goods and intellectual property in the European court of justice's case law, 2002-2006

From its very beginnings, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the free movement of goods had to integrate intellectual property rights.1 By and large, it can be said that the Court has been very successful in eliminating unwarranted restrictions to the free movement of goods on grounds of such rights. In several recent judgments, the Court refined its jurisprudence concerning the doctrine of exhaustion. This doctrine is the Court's formula for balancing two competing concerns: 2 on the one hand, the fundamental principle of free movement of goods, guaranteed by Art. 28 EC. This is relevant, in the present context, for parallel traders, who "play an important role in preventing the compartmentalisation of national markets".3 On the other hand, there are the legitimate interests of the holders of intellectual property rights (recognised by Arts. 295 and 30 EC). The analysis of the case law can, thus, be subdivided into three aspects: the rights conferred on owners of intellectual property, the conditions for exhaustion of intellectual property rights to occur, and the consequences of exhaustion